Standard book adaptaton rules apply, particularly where SK is concerned...
The Book is ALWAYS better than the film....;o)

Very true, although I quite like the films too, despite them feeling often hurried and cheap (or like TV movies).
Finished The Mist, had the same ending I'd seen before. I still think it's a great ending, how many films pull off an ending like that?
[edit] I forgot to mention, I'm reading a collection of HP Lovecraft stories at the moment, and you can totally tell where SK got his idea for this from!

Pfaw. Mostly, yeah, but not always. E.g., The Godfather as a novel is a penny dreadful at its worst, but the film adaptation is regarded by many as the greatest film ever made.
And King...erm...King isn't even a very good writer. >_>

How would you judge his ability as a writer? And who would you rate higher, if a comparison would be easier. (not wanting any confrontation here, just genuinely interested! Don't often get any literary conversations.)
Personally, I've enjoyed several of his books, mostly the older ones, The Shining, The Stand and It spring to mind.

I've found that King can be pretty decent at times. His own style, though, which he doesn't always employ, just turns out pretty ugly most of the time. A good example is Different Seasons. The writing in Apt Pupil is downright atrocious compared with the other 3 stories in the collection (the last of which is just mimicking another author, however--Peter Straub). I keep reading King, for some reason...I kinda like his mythology, although it's mostly just a copy of earlier horror writers, like Lovecraft. A srs love/hate relationship going on. I just read Christine and was just baffled with how...stupid it was. And predictable. (Another thing I don't like from King: his characters. Half of them are the exact same [although many commend him for extremely realistic characters...I don't ever see it]. And I think we can all agree his writing method of never thinking ahead, but writing as it comes to him, leads to many a terrible ending.
Better writers? You'll be annoyed--I'm a big reader, and I consciously go for the more pretentious, pomo stuff 90% of the time.
Paul Auster, Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Richard Brautigan, William Burroughs, Albert Camus, Don DeLillo, James Dickey, Dave Eggers, Bret Easton Ellis, Richard Farina, Ian Fleming (very well-written pulp), Joseph Heller (at least with Catch-22...everything else he's touched...wheewwww, not so hot), Hemingway, John Irving, Joyce, Kafka, Kerouac, Kesey, Cormac McCarthy, Nabokov, Flann O'Brien, Breece D'J Pancake, Thomas Pynchon (best writer EVARRR), Steinbeck, Neal Stephenson, Tolkien, David Foster Wallace, Robert Anton Wilson...a bunch of my favorites who are much stronger writers than old Steve.

I agree a bit about the endings, it does vary a lot from book to book though. I think he's very much like M. Night Shyamalan, because he thinks more about the general feeling and main theme of the story, and leaves the edges fuzzy (if you see what I mean). It's the details that can seem ill-conceived, but the ideas are usually interesting. I think Cujo was probably the biggest let down for me, I read the book and just couldn't maintain any interest in any of the characters, and the scenario seemed quite dull compared to his usual.
I think I've read books by only about 4-5 of those writers, but have heard of most, I'll have to check them out and see if theres any new books I'll want to buy! I never seem to read as much as I used to, but I'd like to get back into it. I'm really enjoying reading Lovecraft, his ideas have influenced so much it's almost shocking. One or two of the short stories I could almost tell exactly what was going to happen, because they have been ruthlessly ripped off over the years. It's the Cthulu mythos that really gets me though, I love that sort of mystery/horror story stuff.

All time favorite films there are too many to list, but if I had to shorten it to the top 5 they'd be something like this:
* Dawn of the Dead (1978)
* Aliens
* The Blues Brothers
* The Shawshank Redemption
* The Ring (US Remake)
As far as the last film I saw, that would be 'No Country For Old Men'. It was definately enjoyable (as I usually enjoy all Cohen Brothers films) but I'd have to say the ending was a bit of a let down...it was like the last episode of Sopranos that just sort of ended right in the middle of something...didn't care for that.
Recommendations? Hmm...how much time you got? I have literally 100's of movies in my collection, but for something that people haven't seen I'd say check out these:
* The Ringu collection (Ringu, Ringu 2 and Ring O): Awesome movies, really does a much better job of the "Ring" mythology than the American remakes (although The Ring is one of my favorite movies simply because of the atmosphere and cinematography)
*ANY Takashi Miike film. All of his films are spectacular. Two of my hand picked favorites would be Audition and Gozu.
*As if the theme weren't blatant enough already...just check out as much J-horror (or asian horror in general) as you can. I thoroughly enjoy their take on the horror genre, and seemingly so does Hollywood since out of the last 30 or so horror films released here, I'd say 80% of them are just remakes of Asian horror classics.

My top 10 favorite films:
1) Platoon
2)The Godfather
3) Lawerence of Arabia
4) Slumdog Millionaire
5) Lost in Translation
6) Alien
7) Seven Samurai
8) Breakfast at Tiffany's (cause Hepburn can be sassy and act!)
9) Saving Private Ryan
10) Apocalypse Now
....And the last one I saw was "Up" which I highly recommend!

I just watched The Plague Dogs again, best animated film i've ever seen. i reccomend it to anyone who likes animated films that aren't from Disney/Pixar, just be sure you don't show it to your children.
I also reccomend "The City of lost children" the story is a bit confusing and surreal, but the art style is fantastic even for a quite old film like this.

The last film I saw was Angels and Demons. I enjoyed it, but unless you liked The Da Vinci Code, there's no point watching it.

Bah, I disliked it, because I had read the much better book beforehand.

I never understood why reading a book makes the movie stupid, can't both coexist and be good in their own medium? I saw A Very Long Engagement 2 days ago and enjoyed that movie as much as the book.

Favorite movie of all time? Easy.
Blade Runner.

Really? That's somewhat disappointing. The book was much better than The Da Vinci Code novel, so I was hoping that this film would be better than the first...

I'm not sure your opinion is complete until you specify which version. I've seen some intense arguments for some of them as opposed to others.